Pune: City doctors have witnessed a significant two-fold increase in influenza infections, with symptoms like fever and persistent cough. Since last month the flu infection observed in patients is more virulent than reported in previous months with delay in recovery, claim doctors.
Doctors attribute the surge in cases to weather change and rising pollution. Most of the patients with respiratory infections have influenza and influenza-like illness (ILI). Number of patients with severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) has also increased with some requiring hospitalisation.
However, hardly anyone gets tested for influenza virus or Covid, doctors said.
Dr Avinash Bhondwe, senior physician, said, “The rise in cases has been reported for the past three weeks. Now we receive 14-15 patients daily as compared to 4-5 reported last month. Most of the symptoms subside quickly, but the cough is persistent for a longer duration than one week to two weeks. The trend of long-lasting cough is more given the pollution and climate change.”
Dr Bhagwan Pawar, Pune Municipal Corporation health officer, said, “The spurt in cases is probably because of erratic weather conditions. Most are flu-like illnesses with hardly any report of Covid-19, H3N2 and H1N1 patients in the city. The severity of flu cases is not too much.”
Dr Rajesh Karyakarte, head, microbiology department at BJ Medical College and Sassoon General Hospital, said, “Across the state, the number of Covid cases has declined. There are hardly a few samples of Covid-19 patients that we get for conducting genomic sequencing. The last variant of Covid-19 was mild in nature and given the mass immunisation, people infected with the virus develops mild symptoms. Hence, many infected patients even don’t get tested for Covid-19.”
{{/usCountry}}Dr Rajesh Karyakarte, head, microbiology department at BJ Medical College and Sassoon General Hospital, said, “Across the state, the number of Covid cases has declined. There are hardly a few samples of Covid-19 patients that we get for conducting genomic sequencing. The last variant of Covid-19 was mild in nature and given the mass immunisation, people infected with the virus develops mild symptoms. Hence, many infected patients even don’t get tested for Covid-19.”
{{/usCountry}}